Priscilla Movie Review

“Priscilla” is the story of Priscilla Presley, based off her memoir of her marriage to Elvis Presley. In a way, this is a flip side to the movie “Elvis” (2022). That movie told the story of Elvis and Priscilla like it was an acid trip. This version of the Priscilla and Elvis story is more like one being told while on Valium.

Priscilla Beaulieu (played by Cailee Spaeny) was 14 years old living in Germany with her family in 1959. Her father was in the military, so the family was living where he was stationed. However, also stationed in Germany was a Rock-n-Roll Singer named Elvis Presley (played by Jacob Elordi).

One day, the very young Priscilla was in a soda shop on the base. The 24 year old Elvis happened to see her in the shop. She was doing her homework, and Elvis asked a buddy name Mike Stone (played by Evan Annisette) to invite the teenager to a party.

The shocked youngster told him she must first ask her parents – her father Captain Beaulieu (played by Ari Cohen) and her mother Ann (played by Dagmara Domińczyk). Of course, they were also puzzled why the much older Presley was interested in Priscilla.

Priscilla did go to the party that had many other people attending. Elvis met with Priscilla and he proved himself to be quite the gentleman. He explained that he had lost his mother recently. Her death really troubled Elvis. He found that talking with Priscilla made him feel closer to home.

There were many more parties, and some dates between Priscilla and Elvis. Elvis met with her father and explained that his motives were pure and above board. Captain Beaulieu was still very confounded by the attraction. But in the end, he saw no harm in it. Then Elvis was done with his time in the Army.

Priscilla was pretty lonely without the time being with Elvis Presley. Elvis was back in Graceland, and he was lonely, too. He made a plan for Priscilla to come back to America and stay at Graceland with him and his entourage. He arranged for Priscilla to transfer to a private high school in town. That was in 1963.

Since Elvis was a Rock-n-Roll Singer, he was able to get his way. Priscilla came to live at the Graceland compound with him, his father Vernon Presley (played by Tim Post), his grandmother (played by Lynn Griffin), and some other relatives.  He also had members of his band and other key people who stayed there.

Priscilla was in high school, but other than that – she was never supposed to be out on her own. Elvis would not let her hang out with schoolmates or get a job. Elvis would usually spend a lot of time travelling on music tours. He would go to Hollywood to star in some movies every once in a while. While on the movie sets, the tabloids and magazines would speculate on Elvis and his current female co-star. This would always upset Priscilla.

Elvis, being a Rock-n-Roll Singer, was able to get most anything that he wanted. He wanted Priscilla to be there for him all of the time. Yet he never imposed himself on her, and they remained chaste. It was like having ‘Friends Without Benefits’. Elvis had a lot doctors who would get him whatever drugs that he needed. Pills to make him sleep better. Pills to make him more energetic on stage. Pills to get him through each day, and the more days he had the Pills, the more Pills he needed.

Once Priscilla graduated, she and Elvis still spent much time together. But his ‘stardom’ demand took him to Las Vegas and to Hollywood quite often. More rumors of Elvis having love affairs with his movie co-stars upset Priscilla. Elvis explained that the studios would gin up a story like that to get publicity for the film. Before too long, he proposed to Priscilla. The two of them were married in 1967.

Elvis was having problems dealing with the idea that he might be over-the-hill and not as popular as he was before. The couple had just married, and within a year, they had a first (and only) child – Lisa Marie. This thrilled the two of them, and Priscilla thought they could not settle down as a family.

But in 1968, Elvis starred in a very popular TV special. His fame and popularity soared one more. He spent more and more out on the road touring and away from the family. The long stretches of time with Elvis missing made Priscilla feel terrible. Elvis got a very, very exclusive contract to perform in residence at a new Las Vegas hotel. His drug use became more invasive, and his temper grew hotter and more extreme.

Priscilla was not able to see Elvis for months on end. She did all that she could to take care of Lisa Marie. But — a girls got needs, ya know! She started seeing her male karate instructor, and has an affair with him. But he just proved to Priscilla that her real love was with Elvis. But his life was pulled further and further away from her.

There was one time where Priscilla finally got to attend a show that Elvis put on in the Las Vegas hotel. He invited her up to his room after the show. But the once gentle and respectful man she knew was taken over by years of anger and drugs. Elvis assaulted her, and she never forgave him after that night. They divorced in 1972.

“Priscilla” lays out the story that the “Elvis” movie told, but the other point of view. Sure, “Elvis” has more energy than a case of Red Bull, and this movie tends to drift along like a lazy river.  Priscilla Presley never had any hit records, major music tours, or any big Hollywood movies. But she was always there for her man.

The movie never gets into the fact about how young Priscilla was when Elvis first met her, or the fact he was ten years older. Elvis was not exactly ‘robbing the cradle’, but he seems to be ‘borrowing from the grade school’.

Cailee Spaeny does a very nice job playing Priscilla, but there is not a huge personality or a big character in that. The Elvis role, played by Jacob Elordi, is much bigger and larger than life. It is somewhat of a shame that the main character in the movie is overshadowed by the person who is not in the lead role. Sofia Coppola has done a very respectful movie to honor the woman who lived at Graceland.

“Priscilla” is a flip side to the movie “Elvis”, that movie told the story of Elvis and Priscilla as an acid trip. This version is more like a story being told while on Valium.